Coal Leasing Moratorium

The Obama administration’s federal coal leasing moratorium is the latest symbolic yet costly gesture to show climate leadership. Fossil fuels will supply 80 percent of the world’s energy needs through at least 2040. Real climate leadership would follow through on the president’s 2008 pledge to advance development of carbon abatement technologies for all fossil fuels.

The administration’s reasons for the moratorium rise to the “fiction peddling” the president condemned in his State of the Union address. According to the Department of Interior’s reports, coal mines in the Powder River Basin are free of off-site environmental impacts, and the carbon emissions from using the coal are already evaluated before any lease sale.

The economic case is equally contrived. The public receives 39 cents of every dollar earned on coal production from the Powder River Basin in the form of royalties, taxes and fees.